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popsci_2013 01430.txt

#Human head Transplants Are Getting Closer To Realitycomplete head transplants are complicated enormously requiring the reconnecting of literally millions of nerve fibers not to mention bones and tissue. We're not really sure how any of this will work but it looks like we're getting closer to a full this-head-on-that-body operation. Sergio Canavero a doctor at the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group just published a paper looking at some recent developments in spinal cord fusion and suggesting that this means human head transplants are on their way. He puts forth a theoretical procedure that he says could enable these transplants. It involves a super-sharp cut right through the spinal column followed by mechanical fusion of the donor and recipient held together with plastics like polyethylene glycol (PEG). He theorizes that the clean cut and tight fusion could allow the body to naturally repair the severed nerves. Canavero's theory is just that a theory --but he's right in noting that this sort of transplant is rapidly developing. A quote from Canavero's paper: The greatest technical hurdle to a head transplant is of course the reconnection of the donor'S d)' s and recipients (R)' s spinal cords. It is my contention that the technology only now exists for such linkage. Head transplants have been done before most famously with rhesus monkeys in a 1970 procedure. But joining up a pair of central nervous systems proved too difficult to crack; in the case of the rhesus monkeys many organs became functional but the animals were paralyzed from the neck down due to an inability to properly connect the spine. Last week researchers at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic managed to restore significant control in rats with spinal cords cut as they would be in a head transplant (though this study didn't actually involve head transplants. The surgery was similar to the 1970 procedure: bring the temperature of the body down as far as possible induce cardiac arrest and reconnect as much as you can. The circulatory system is relatively easy to connect but this recent surgery was the first to restore a nervous system function. The spinal cord is reconnected by creating a sort of scaffolding made of nerve fibers from the rat's rib cage and held in place with fibrin a protein found in blood that induces clotting. That's enhanced with a few chemicals to hurry the process along to the intended effects: chondroitinase ABC discourages scarring and fibroblasts encourage nerve growth. After six months the rats regained bladder control though they never regained the ability to walk. As Canavero points out that's a huge step forward. via Next Big Future and Qz Why on earth would they want to do this. It's just plain creepy. Why? The head part was just wrong term to use here. The real applciation of this is to find a way to repair spinal damage. If they can properly connect and fix spine this way-then it allows yhem to find a way to rebuild and connect severed or damaged nervers on people who cant walk or are paralized neck down. There may come a time when we just clone our bodies and replace them on the fly for immortality by attaching our heads to them. So we'll be seeing Ted Williams goin for. 500 soon? Sometimes we need to look at what we have and ask is it enough for something else? This might be enough to colonize the galaxy. Small frogs organs and embryos are able to survive freezing. However mammals are too big but what if in parts they could be made smaller to survive freezing. Then one mouse could conceive a larger mousses embryo and so on until it s large enough to be engineered to give birth to a pig. Then a genetically altered pig gives birth to a chimp and finally from chimp to humans. Using Saturn s magnetic field can only propel a few grams at a time but approaching increments of light speed. Odds are that life compatible planets are common in space but intelligent machine making life may be rare or close to impossible if were the only example FUTURAMA BEGINS...tmarti69 I don't know much about planetary magnetic fields but what you proposed with the embryos is not possible as the mother's immune system would destroy the developing alien fetus in situ. This has been done for decades. Every once in a while somebody get his head chopped replaced by a bag of horsesh t and then becomes president. What good is a head transplant until the consciousness contained within can not be preserved and transferred? Cool...and more than a little freaky. The thought of a head needing to be reattached in the first place gives me the chills...never mind a reanimated head on an unmatched corpse.**shudder*kevin56: The transplanted head would still be the seat of consciousnessjust the body below it would change-no different than being anaesthetized and waking up after. If Bones could reconnect Spock's brainit should be a snap..Zackg85uterus transplants of humans have happened already. No births yet but some planed anti-rejection drugs will likely make this happen. Even still this is the same problem as resurrecting the Thylacine or Wooly Mammoth both being worked on today. Both expected to eventually work. Also keep in mind that pigs may soon produce custom human pancreases in the near future other organs to follow. Crimea cells are an exception to immunity. In other words part of the clone embryo cells could replace a blastocyst in the mother to prevent rejection. This should also be explored with replacement organs. This may not prove to last life long but duck and quail brain chimeras articles do not say a shorter life span. It could be that the brain is an exception but this only needs to work long enough life span to give birth the next larger mammal. There are several search engines about reaching a tenth to perhaps half the speed of light using Saturn s magnetic field. There are ethical and legal problems with this. Think about it..Your head on a different body. The finger prints are not yours...so legally are you them (the other body) or you? 5%of the body is the head and 95%is the rest of the body...so are you them and not you? There are debts owed by the body. Are you the head responsible? You the head have debts. Do you still owe not that you are on a different body? Your ex-wife has her head put a 20 year old's body. Do you now owe her another 30 years worth of alimony? Garthbock: You would be fingerprinted re if arrestedno problem there. Your new fingerprints would therefore be yoursas you are the headthe body is just a support system for your brain. Debts owed would be the responsibility of the you the headwhich just happens to be fastened to a new body. Alimony terms set in the divorce settlement would still applyso yesyou might be paying them longer. What is interesting is Chimeras are and exception to immunity. This may mean that finding the last blastocyst on an infant and replacing it with a clone pigs may create organ tolerance for that child. Like wisdom teeth or an injection of cells from the pig into the child cut belly button. If it s about the blastocyst and not development it would be a work around for pig organ transplants in humans s

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